This is a ridiculous concern. We know precisely where he grew up. We know where he went to high school and camp. We know where he lived afterward. Both Ypsi and A2 were very different places then, and I don’t see why it matters. I will never understand the Ypsi insecurity around Ann Arbor. Ypsi is in many ways a better city now. I know Ann Arbor has a legacy of condescension (because A2 is generally just fucking condescending), but it seems that Ypsi’s rep is much improved in the last 20 years. I don’t understand is why Ypsi is so defensive. There’s nothing to be defensive about. They are both their own distinct places, still. Thank God.

I’m okay with Iggy Pop living in Ypsilanti and going to school and hanging out in Ann Arbor, especially if that’s what Iggy feels is the best description of a past than happened quite a while ago. But why are we stuck on adolescent Iggy, if not for a nostalgia about our preferred version of our own pasts? As times change, our view of art should change with it.

And, yes, I know this is a stupid argument to have as the world is burning down around us, but, on occasion, I just need to retreat back to simpler times. And, last night, I just couldn’t bring myself to write about Scott Pruitt and his bulletproof desk, which is what I thought that I should be writing about.

I don’t think the world is burning down around us because Trump. If you look closely, the Trump agenda is not significantly different than what a Cruz agenda, Rubio agenda, or even Jeb! agenda would have produced. If impeached, then we would have the Pence agenda, which would be materially similar, just in a different wrapper. The man is uncouth, unknowledgable, and petty, something that we haven’t seen in a modern American president, and maybe that’s what’s really driving a lot of people crazy. While other presidents may have put on an act of concern, he is incapable of pretense.

Anyway, Mark, you wish is my command. Molly Ringwald did record audio of her watching the movie with her 10-year-old daughter Mathilda, and was completely floored with what her daughter got out of it. It’s the third act of this episode of This American Life.

As a rule, I don’t listen to This American Life as I’m allergic to the cadence modeled by Ira Glass, and adopted by everyone pulled within the TAL universe. I will, however, give this a shot.

As for Trump not being the singular problem in our world, I’d agree. He did not come to power in a vacuum. There were many factors that contributed to his ascent. And they all need to be eliminated. We, as a nation, need to approach the Trump presidency the way the NTSB approaches domestic airline crashes. We need to figure out exactly what happened, and ensure that it never happens again.